04 Chateau de la Dimerie, Muscadet de Sevre et Maine sur Lie

This wine is a broken watch--time stuck inside as the world ticks on without it. Oh, I can be so cheesy. And that would normally just be a lame metaphor, were there not some truth to it. This review takes place 24 hours after pouring the wine in my glass--a point at which most wines would have at least begun to turn. But this powerful, stubborn white stayed put through the night. A half-glass full I was ready to toss stopped me in my tracks today. It is exactly as it was when first poured yesterday. A strict, herbal, slightly pungent wine. Subdued, as so many Loire whites, by its stony terroir, it gives us what it can with flavors of ripe golden apples, pear, dry sage honey, pressed grass (yeah, that's right), nectarines, and tangerines. It sounds like a lot, but it isn't. There are no layers to this wine. It's all there, in every sip (even the next day), buried beneath an intoxicatingly terroiriste salinity and waxy mouthfeel that once again show many Loire whites are "Loire" through and through--long before they're muscadet, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, or any other varietal. And while other wines and winemakers evolve almost by Moore's Law today, I rather picture Dimerie's muscadet camped beneath a tree eating Chavignol and charcuterie. I, with my shoes off, would join it--my watch floating in the river behind us.